Just Giver! Mike's Adventures in New Zealand

Go CANADA!!!

I was able to attend the Canada vs Tonga game early in the week and it was the best international sporting event I have ever been too. It reminded me of the Vancouver Olympics when Canada beat the USA in hockey, but better because Im in a foreign country. I flew back into Auckland from a work trip in Wellington and Christchurch and my mate picked me up at the airport and we headed on our way to Whangarei. It was me, my mate and his partner plus a random Canadian that joined us for our roadie. That made for 3 Canadians and a kiwi; good mix!

Whangarei is about 2 hours north of Auckland and they had some bevies chilled and ready to go in the car. FYI – it is legal to drink in a vehicle, just not the driver. This made for a fun ride down! We checked into our motel and had a cab waiting to take us to the game. 15 minutes later we were amongst a sea of red. Not just the maple leaf, but also Tonga whose flag fly’s the same colours.

This little girl offered to paint a maple leadf on my face... how could you say no to that!

We had enough time to each grab a 4 pack of beer and then it was time for the national anthems. We did our country proud singing a long, even the local beside us commented on our patriotism. A little girl beside painted our faces with the red and white!

It wasn’t supposed to be a close game, Canada wasn’t supposed to pose much of a threat. But that is the great thing about sport, on game day anyone can win. Canada was much smaller than Tonga, but it didn’t matter. We battled the entire game and pulled off a major upset and then the celebrations began. It was full of cheering, high fiving, hugging, flag waving and many renditions of O’Canada. We walked down to the Thirsty Prawn where the Canadian celebrations were just kicking off. To be honest all I remember is hanging out with more Canadians than I have since I moved to NZ. It was great. The atmosphere was electric and friendly. We got on the piss BIG TIME! After celebrating there for a couple hours we needed a feed and hit up the local eatery in Whangarei.

Once back at the hotel it was a beer, food and bed! Woke up the next morning to a headache, but it came with a smile. We won, had an epic night and had the entire day to make our way back to Auckland. The party didn’t end there…

What do you the next day after a huge win for Canada at the RWC? You get back on it! We cracked some morning beers and let the day come to us. We had to check out by 10am and we were 3 beers deep by this time. My mates partner was driving us back so it was party time once again. We had a case left to drink, a couple girl liquor drinks and a big jug of Sangria to get through and did we ever. On the trip home we stopped off at the beach had a swim, drank couple more beers and then went for a wee hike to a waterfall. Not bad eh! Soon as the booze ran out, night-night. Woke up in Auckland, where I took a nap for another couple hours, then got up and had dinner and back to bed. BENDER!

Here is a gem of a story about the game that game to forefront 2 days later. Michelle has a friend whose partner is Canadian. He has mate over from Canada and they are touring NZ going to all of the Canada games and a couple others. They invited us over to watch the All Blacks VS Japan game. NOTE: I had never met these other Canadians before. I was joking before going over to michelle that I could have met/seen them at the Canada VS Tonga game and wouldn’t have remember as I was a bit boozed. So walk over to their place, meet the other Canadians and watch the game. Cool people and we talked about how great the game was and all of the red and white the Thirsty Prawn. The next day I get a txt from said Canadians saying that he has pictures of me and him partying. Neither of us remember this. Fu*k’n crazy-ass night.